I don't want luxury

In a magazine I was reading in the sun (ah the sun- I couldn't be happier!) today there was an article raving about quirky, cooky places to stay in the UK. It got me thinking about the luxury of staying somewhere not so luxurious and how I have a habit of interchanging 'unusual' for 'luxurious' in the context of overnight retreats.

Two years ago we had the luxury (and it really was the luxury) of travelling in Indonesia. We stayed at The Temple Lodge. Although our room had no walls and you had to cover up your toiletries to hide them from the monkeys and mating frogs kept us up all night, it really was the most perfect hotel I have ever come across. It was also one of the cheapest.





What's tricky is that nowadays stars mean nothing when choosing where to stay overnight. Chain hotels are never luxury (well not unless you pay squillions for a super duper suite), they're just samey. Boutique hotels, normally beautifully designed but small. I'm not claiming to be an expert (I'll leave that to the competitors on Three in a Bed- see BBC3 i think) but what I really want from a hotel nowadays is unusual and not necessarily luxury (so long as there arn't cockroaches scampering along the bathroom surfaces).